OsGemeos, São Paulo, 2007. All photos: Eduardo Ortega (except The Graffiti Project, Scotland, and São Paulo, 2007). Courtesy of the artists and Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo.

Otávio and Gustavo Pandolfo, aka OsGemeos, are identical twins whose work one might have come across without knowing it, on one’s hurried way somewhere else. This is not a hyperbole; graffiti and murals by OsGemeos exist around the globe: in their native São Paulo, Athens (where they created a mural for the 2004 Olympics), Berlin, Barcelona, Scotland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Coney Island, and even Williamsburg. OsGemeos sidestep the trappings of street culture by not discriminating amongst indoor and outdoor walls. They’re as comfortable leaving their imprint on the streets as they are making paintings on wood and canvas to be shown in galleries, and cull their imagery as much from outsider art, Brazilian folklore, and global hip-hop culture, as from their own private mythology. Their multifaceted output, which includes sculptures and installations, makes all the sense in the world: theirs is an artistic practice times two.

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Issue 102 Winter 2008